Some Brain-DAMAGED Patients Aware Study Shows
The Palm Beach Post - February 08, 2005Thousands of brain-damaged people who are treated as if they are virtually unaware may in fact hear and register what is going on around them but be unable to respond, a new brain imaging study suggests.
The findings, if repeated, could have sweeping implications for determining care. Some experts said the study, which appeared Monday in the journal Neurology, also could have consequences for legal cases, when parties dispute the mental state of a patient who is unresponsive. The research showed brain-imaging technology can be a powerful tool to determine if a person had lost awareness.
"This study gave me goose bumps, because it shows this possibility of this profound isolation, that these people are there, that they've been there all along, even though we've been treating them as if they're not," said Dr. Joseph Fins, chief of medical ethics of New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Other experts warned that the new research was more suggestive than conclusive, and that it did not mean that unresponsive people with brain damage were more likely to recover or that treatment was yet possible.
But they said the study did open a window on a world that has been neglected by medical inquiry.
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